Leisure

Reviews and think pieces on music, movies, art, and theater.

Leisure

Trance will hold you in its sway

A psychological thriller can only go one of two ways—astounding success or abject failure. Every piece of the puzzle must come together in the end, the build-up to the ultimate reveal being propelled by unmistakable momentum. Director Danny Boyle masterfully achieves this feat with Trance, his fascination with both visual and metaphorical fragmentation showing through in every scene and suspense pervading every line.

By April 11, 2013

Leisure

Examining intimacy with “Let’s Not Ever Be Strangers Again”

I have never witnessed a performance art show, since it’s a relatively nascent artistic phenomenon to gain attention from the general population. The closest I ever got was visiting the Curator’s Office, a gallery near Logan Circle, to examine the extraordinary documentation of D.C. native and performance artist Kathryn Cornelius’s edgy experiment, performed in summer 2012. “Let’s Not Ever Be Strangers Again” details 34-year-old Cornelius’s experience of getting married to seven different people in seven hours, and promptly divorcing each one merely an hour after the wedding vows. All in a day’s work.

By April 11, 2013

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Critical Voices: James Blake, Overgrown

A sensitive dubstep artist who’s been known to collaborate with Bon Iver isn’t exactly the kind of musician you find in droves these days. So, James Blake is somewhat of an anomaly in this sense, though the tremendous appeal of his idiosyncratic, folksy electronica is impossible to deny. With his sophomore effort, Overgrown, the London-based singer-songwriter proves that he’s in no way contained within the boundaries of genre.

By April 11, 2013

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Critical Voices: Brad Paisley, Wheelhouse

Few things are as satisfying to watch as an artist with nothing left to prove. With nine albums under his belt, country star Brad Paisley is truly in his comfort zone; now, he’s just having fun. A largely unedited, seemingly casual jam session merges his unique brand of comedy and a glimpse at pervasive social issues on the appropriately titled Wheelhouse, unleashing the full force of Paisley’s insight and creativity on a 17-track masterpiece.

By April 11, 2013

Leisure

Loose Cannon: I wish I was in Dixie

Throughout this semester, I have been contemplating many aspects and incidents of drunken debauchery here at Georgetown. The more I thought about the subject—the wild nights, the painful mornings, the stupid and awesome decisions made—the more I wanted to know the meaning behind all of this intoxicated behavior. Why does Georgetown drink so hard, and how could I get to the bottom of this question?

By April 11, 2013

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Paper View: In praise of bad men

A glass of Scotch, a pressed designer suit, oodles of witticisms oozing with creative confidence. Don Draper, the anti-hero of AMC’s Mad Men, is the symbol of masculine perfection. Hairy chest? Check. Commanding presence? Check. Insanely rich? Marry me.

By April 11, 2013

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Spring Awakening shocks and awes in Poulton Hall

This weekend, sex and suicide will be simulated on a Georgetown stage. This is not a lurid hook to get you to spend $8 at Poulton Hall. It is a salute to our Jesuit University and its students for their creative and mature handling of the, at times, violent and shocking content of the musical Spring Awakening. The show is masterfully done and displays the full spectrum of Georgetown’s talent from the singing, to the staging, to the orchestration.

By April 4, 2013

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Gosling spruces up Beyond the Pines

Ambition can sometimes be a dirty word, depending on its reach and underlying intentions. A riveting film following fatherhood and its generation-spanning consequences, The Place Beyond the Pines is certainly no stranger to aspiration. Though a narrative triptych that throws its net a little too wide, the latest film from Derek Cianfrance, the director of indie darling Blue Valentine, is nevertheless a rarity in its ability to touch on themes of novelistic proportions.

By April 4, 2013

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Outwin Boochever Competition breathes life into portraits

While the traditional notion of a “portrait” connotes the art of creating detailed personal representations, the National Portrait Gallery’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition takes the art of portraiture to entirely new levels. The exhibit transforms portraits into powerful works that communicate themes of personal identity, cultural differences, and the fleeting nature of beauty—qualities the average Facebook profile picture simply cannot capture.

By April 4, 2013

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Spring Sing is in the air

As the Georgetown community gets pumped for Calvin Harris’s concert this Saturday, campus a cappella groups are gearing up for a performance of their own. Superfood will host the Spring Sing concert, featuring familiar groups like the GraceNotes, the Capitol Gs, and the Chimes, as well as esteemed national acts like Johns Hopkins University’s Vocal Chords and Brown University’s Jabberwocks.

By April 4, 2013

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Critical Voices: Wavves, Afraid of Heights

We each cope with depression in our own way. For Wavves frontman Nathan Williams on the band’s fourth full-length release Afraid of Heights, it’s copious self-medication, followed by suicidal meditation. Using ‘90s-era skate punk as a vehicle for self-loathing, Afraid of Heights is a well-constructed dirge of an album, even if Williams hasn’t moved on thematically from where he was five years ago.

By April 4, 2013

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Critical Voices: Charles Bradley, Victim of Love

There are a couple of things you won’t believe when you first slap Charles Bradley’s second record, Victim of Love, on the turntable.

By April 4, 2013

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Under the Covers: Sandberg leans in, falls short

“The blunt truth is that men still run the world.” Sheryl Sandberg, author of Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead asserts that gender inequality in the workplace is rampant. Sandberg’s book calls on you, women and men of Georgetown, to lean in—“be ambitious in any pursuit”—to combat this phenomenon.

By April 4, 2013

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Reel Talk: Some ideas shine, some don’t

Reflecting on the recent “conspiracy theory” documentary chronicling interpretations of The Shining’s true meaning, The Atlantic’s Jason Bailey posed a salient question: can movies be solved? A cryptic and haunting movie, The Shining asks more questions than it answers; on top of this, its famously elusive director Stanley Kubrick was known for his meticulous attention to detail and big picture thematic undertones. With these facts on the table, it becomes clear that The Shining may have an agenda beneath its horror movie veneer.

By April 4, 2013

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Mari Vanna opens a portal to the Motherland in Dupont

Borsch—a beet and assorted vegetable soup with beef—is perhaps the most iconic dish associated with Russian cuisine. Indeed, the image of a wooden spoon resting casually in a steaming bowl of the red staple, along with a surrounding crowd of bustling relatives, is common in the motherland.

By March 21, 2013

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Ginger & Rosa: Love in a Cold War

There’s something about 1960s London that smells like teen spirit. Caught in between the heyday of the Beatles and the stifling atmosphere of ‘50s conservatism, the title protagonists of the sharply intelligent Ginger & Rosa relish the tide of change that is just beginning to roll in at the start of the decade. Best friends since birth, they are restless 17-year-olds that sniff at their mothers’ bourgeois domesticity and yearn for freedom. Theirs is a familiar narrative, filled with the same rebelliousness and shattered illusions of adolescence, yet it’s a coming-of-age tale that explores an emotional landscape far broader than that of mere tension between generations.

By March 21, 2013

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Corcoran photography examines the state of the world

So exactly, how is the world? This is the question one of the Corcoran’s newest exhibits tries to answer through a small assortment of contemporary photography. Bringing together a diverse group of photographers with styles that range from self-portraiture to exclusively using the life on the streets as a subject, How is the World? is an eclectic yet cohesive collection that offers a powerful insight into an age when both the world and the artistic medium used to capture it are constantly evolving.

By March 21, 2013

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Critical Voices: Justin Timberlake, The 20/20 Experience

There will always be something a little seductive about the prince of pop, and Justin Timberlake fully capitalizes on this magnetism to bring a heavy dose of hype to his new album. The former ‘N Sync singer brings sexy back in full force with The 20/20 Experience, which features an eclectic variety of songs that vary from R&B, pop, Latin, Eastern, and even a little slow rock. One may think the selection might make the record messy, but Timberlake makes every transition flawless.

By March 21, 2013

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Critical Voices: Alpha Rev, Bloom

Formed in the wake of the breakup of frontman Casey McPherson’s previous band Endochine, the stalwart crew of Austin rockers known as Alpha Rev has climbed the Texas indie chart with three full-length LPs built around McPherson’s vocal range. Alpha Rev’s most recent album, Bloom, utilizes his practiced voice against a soothing musical backdrop to bring compelling soft alternative rock into the world.

By March 21, 2013

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Paper View: Bitch, don’t kill my vibe

Take a shot every time someone says bitch, a punch is thrown, a nipple or vagina is blurred, the girls take a shot, or a weave falls on the floor. So go the rules of the Bad Girls Club drinking game, Oxygen’s genius idea to put a bunch of misbehaving girls (coke whores, sex addicts, alcoholics, etc.) together and hope they can rehabilitate themselves into better citizens.

By March 21, 2013